CNVM promises tight monitoring for issuers moved from the Rasdaq to the ATS

Gabriela Anghelache, the chairwoman of the Romanian National Securities Commission (CNVM) yesterday warned issuers listed on Rasdaq that are not in compliance with the regulations for that specific market section that they would be moved to the alternative trading system (ATS), once the charter of the Rasdaq market would be completed. She stressed that issuers moved to the ATS would still be required to comply with certain reporting and transparency regulations.

The completion of the charter of the Rasdaq market is now in its final stage. The CNVM is pushed for time by a ruling of the Court of Arad, which requires it to determine by mid-June whether the Rasdaq was a regulated market or not. The Commission has already missed the deadline set by the court.

The CNVM wants to move some of the companies listed on the Rasdaq to the Bucharest Stock Exchange, with the rest of them to be transferred to an ATS. At the same time, investors are concerned that moving the remaining companies to the ATS will lead to lax oversight of those companies.

"Issuers that will see their stock moved from the Rasdaq to the Alternative Trading System shouldn"t think that they are moving to an unregulated market. The move is needed because we can"t risk having companies on the BSE that don"t meet the requirements for being listed on a regulated market (except for the free-float)", the chairwoman of the CNVM said.

The main argument that investors are using against the moving of some issuers from the Rasdaq to the ATS comes from the fact that at the time when they began investing in the market, the Rasdaq was considered a regulated market.

The chairwoman of the CNVM explained that after Romania"s accession to the European Union, the notion of regulated market suffered some changes.

"The Rasdaq will remain a market that has rules, which will be issued by the market regulator, and trading will be regulated and monitored. According to the European directives, only the Bucharest Stock Exchange is a regulated market. The Rasdaq market was created in 1996 as a regulated market, but not according to the definition provided by the European directives.

The Stock Exchange represents the regulated market, and companies can access it as long as they meet the requirements of the directives. The companies listed on the Rasdaq that do not meet these requirements will have to move to the ATS. We can"t take all of the companies of the Rasdaq and move them to the BSE.